Polar star under Southern Cross.

• NEWS
• 26 Dec, 2002 08:52:00 AM

Polar star under Southern Cross.

The Rolex Sydney Hobart is always a whole lot of races within a race. While every skipper dreams of winning outright, there is also always a small clique of rival boats that he or she is especially out to beat.

The Rolex Sydney Hobart is always a whole lot of races within a race.  While every skipper dreams of winning outright, there is also always a small clique of rival boats that he or she is especially out to beat.

In 2002 one of the most hotly contested of these mini races will be that between the five Sydney 38’s.  Four of them are local and have all the advantages of home waters knowledge, but George Shaiduko, who is leading a Russian team on Polar Star is very confident that his Sydney 38 will be first across the line.

His crew is from all over Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok, but they have all campaigned before and have won a national championship together.

Shaiduko himself is a medal winning Olympian.  In 1996 he won silver in Atlanta in the Soling class, and came sixth in the class in Sydney in 2000.  He has also won two Soling World titles, and is highly renowned on the international match racing circuit.

He is delighted with the Sydney 38 he has chartered, and even though the team will only have four days on the harbour getting to know the boat he is confident that they will be able to get the most out of her on Boxing Day.

Neville Wittey is behind the Russian venture and will sail to Hobart with the team, along with co-skipper Natasha Henley Smith.  He did the same thing last year with another Russian crew.  They did very well, being the first Sydney 38 across the line and coming 10^th overall.

After two days on the water with the Shaiduko Wittey shares the Russian’s confidence that they will do just as well this year, if not better.  “After two days we’re in a better state now than we were when we reached Hobart last year,” he says.

“Shaiduko is a match racer.  He’s used to traveling around the world, getting onto a boat he’s never seen before and beating the locals.  All these guys are very good sailors.

“The hardest thing will be (the Australians and Russians) communicating with each other if things get tough, but we’ll do all right.”

Shaiduko says that the competition in Australia is very strong, and the weather conditions during the Hobart can be very different to what they are used to back home.  The race is very well known in Russia, and everybody knows it can be dangerous.

That’s why they came.